ski’s Career at Duke. Champaign, Ill.: Sports Pub-
lishing, 2005. Twenty-five friends, players, and
colleagues provide their views of Duke Univer-
sity’s men’s basketball coach.
Kevin L. BrennanSee also Albert, Marv; Barkley, Charles; Dream
Team; Johnson, Magic; Jordan, Michael; Malone,
Karl; Olympic Games of 1992; Olympic Games of
1996; O’Neal, Shaquille; Sports; Women’s National
Basketball Association (WNBA).
Baywatch
Identification Television adventure-drama series
Date Aired 1989 and 1991-2001
Often dismissed as a kitschy series pandering to a young de-
mographic with simplistic stor y lines serving as an excuse
to show beautiful bodies on beautiful stretches of California
beaches,Baywatchevolved into a character-centered ad-
venture series that treated environmental and social issues,
a formula that made it the most-watched television show
worldwide during the 1990’s.The original concept for a drama series based on the
heroics of Los Angeles County lifeguards was
pitched nearly ten years before production of
Baywatchstarted.Baywatchdebuted in September,
1989, on the National Broadcasting Company
(NBC) after an encouraging late spring pilot. The
show struggled, however, its creators unable to settle
on a genre: Should it be a murder mystery, a rescue-
adventure drama, or a sexy soap opera? The show
never found its audience (in addition, production
costs were exacerbated by the demands of on-site
shooting) and was canceled after a single season. Its
star, David Hasselhoff (who played senior lifeguard
Mitch Buchannon) was convinced that the show had
potential and took over as executive producer.
Within a year, he had marketed the series as a first-The Nineties in America Baywatch 93
The cast ofBaywatch, with David Hasselhoff in the middle and Pamela Anderson to his left.(©Neal Preston/Corbis)